Case study

One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Working Group

Given both their influence and long-term investment horizons, Sovereign Wealth Funds (“SWFs”) are in a unique position to promote long-term value creation and sustainable market outcomes. Accordingly, the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Working Group was established in December 2017 in order to accelerate efforts to integrate financial risks and opportunities related to climate change into the management of large, longterm and diversified asset pools

The Guardians is a founding member of the One Planet SWF Working Group, alongside the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Kuwait Investment Authority, Norges Bank Investment Management, the Public Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Qatar Investment Authority. Together, the founding members collectively manage over USD3t in assets. The initiative is championed by President Macron of France.

The Group’s Climate Change Framework was launched in July 2018, with the Guardians contributing in particular on policy and technical leadership. Building on current industry best practice, the framework aims to foster a shared understanding among long-term asset owners with regard to the key principles, methodologies and indicators related to climate issues. It also aims to identify climate-related risks and opportunities in members’ investments, while enhancing their investment decision-making frameworks to better inform SWFs’ priorities as investors and participants in financial markets.

The framework’s three guiding principles are:

Alignment: build climate change considerations, which are aligned with the SWFs’ investment horizons, into decision making.

Ownership: encourage companies to address material climate change issues in their governance, business strategy and planning, risk management and public reporting to promote value creation.

Integration: integrate the consideration of climate-related risks and opportunities into investment management to improve the resilience of long-term investment portfolios.

Matt Whineray, Chief Executive of NZ Super Fund (third from left); along with Emmanuel Macron, President of France (centre left), Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway (centre right) and members of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Working Group.